Letters From OC Weekly Readers

TALES OF THE TAPEMr. Moxley, I usually respect your work, but this one is pretty weak, and you are wrong in one point you bring up [R. Scott Moxley’s Moxley Confidential, “The Incredible Reappearing Videotape,” Oct. 1]. Miranda is not required by law when someone is arrested. It is only required when you are arrested and the police want to question you. You can be arrested and taken to jail without questioning, and Miranda does not apply. Just because someone asks to be read his rights does not therefore require the police to read Miranda. If that is the only suspicious thing on the tape, then big freaking deal!

Rosco, Laguna Hills, via ocweekly.com

Always appreciate a good story about our boys in blue . . . er, green. OC is not the only one with issues regarding videotaping beatings. Uh, I mean arrests. Unfortunately for us cop-like folks, the law is becoming more and more clear, and police are going to have to suffer with being taped. I don’t think most of them have as much an issue with that as with the clever editing that some news stations do to tapes that come into their possession. This should be an interesting case. I hope the judge will make some type of ruling that includes the tape issue. Great story, in any case.

Stinking Badge, The Real OC, via ocweekly.com

Badge, you got it very correct. This incident, if true (I have no particular reason to doubt it’s largely accurate), makes life hugely more difficult for the good cops out there. I remember the evolutions of the Rodney King tape in subsequent airings. It went from being shown with sound, in which you could clearly hear the officers telling King to get out and stay on the ground, and showed him resisting to without sound and the part showing his resisting edited out. This is not intended to condone the action that may have gotten out of hand, but to illustrate an instance I am personally aware of in which the media (as in LA TV-news pukes) manipulated material. Whenever possible, encounters between police and private citizens need to be taped and made available in their entirety to the judicial system.

Bill T, via ocweekly.com

R. Scott Moxley responds: I did botch the phrase about Miranda. The cops get to decide if or when to issue a Miranda warning. But the crux of the article wasn’t about Miranda. It was about the suspicious drama over the existence of the tape, which leads me to follow up on another dispute. Sheriff’s department spokesman John McDonald claimed in the article that neither prosecutors nor defense lawyer Scott Borthwick ever asked to see the tape. Because the assertion came just as the paper was going to print, there was no time to include responses to it. Susan Kang Schroeder, the DA’s public-affairs counsel and chief of staff, called McDonald’s claim “outrageous” and “completely untrue.” Prosecutor Cheryl Gold, who handled the case, said she “exhausted” attempts to pressure the sheriff’s department to find the tape after deputies told her they’d lost it. Defense attorney Borthwick called McDonald’s claim “revisionist history.”

YES, WE CANNABIS!I applaud OC Weekly, Sue Lester and all others involved in trying to make this all work the right way[Nick Schou’s “The Cannabis Candidate,” Oct. 1]! I’ve even heard the Costa Mesa Police Department is actually expressing an open mind to the situation, which is all we ask. Finally, some civility!

Chadd McKeen, Costa Mesa, via ocweekly.com

MORE MINIONS HEARD FROMMany thanks and kudos to Karina Longworth’s article on Cassandra Peterson [“Elvira’s World,” Sept. 24]. I have admired her campy depiction of the Mistress of the Dark for years, and I still have the life-sized Coors promo, as well as her standard poster. Karina’s reporting was complete and honest, with many insights I missed over the past 28 years of my infatuation. (She is only nine years younger than me. Do you think I still have a chance?) Thanks again for some great writing.

Patrick Detches, Aliso Viejo, via e-mail

Retire? Oh, hell no! Five more years of Movie Macabre, one more movie and an animated series for Adult Swim, then we might let you retire.

JD, via ocweekly.com

Loved her in the ’80s! But, as time would have it, I am onto my new thang: ElViagra.

Kaonashi, via ocweekly.com

STAFF WRITER WANTEDOC Weekly has an immediate opening for a full-time staff writer. We are looking for a reporter with the writing skills necessary to produce both long-form magazine-style stories and contributions to our news blog, Navel Gazing. If your copy is as much a pleasure to read as it is well-researched, we want to hear from you. We offer competitive salaries and benefits. Interested candidates should send their best clips, a résumé and a cover letter to OC-staff-writer@villagevoicemedia.com.

Letters may be edited for clarity and length. E-mail to letters@ocweekly.com, or mail to Letters to the Editor, c/o OC Weekly, 2975 Red Hill Ave., Ste. 150, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Or fax to (714) 550-5908.